What's the Deal With Meat Sweats? What Causes Them, How to Avoid Them

You may love the smell of meat roasting on the barbecue, and you may be salivating at the thought now, but eating too much meat could actually result in a strange phenomenon known as meat sweats.

What happens is this: after pigging out on a generous helping of animal flesh, you find your skin starts to become moist, your face flushed, and your body starts to sweat, and this is thought to have been caused by a combination of protein, and increased metabolism. Surprisingly, there is no scientific validation for why the meat sweats exist, GQ reports, although there are some theories as to why it happens, including the thermic effect of food, which the publication notes is referred to by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition as “the increase in metabolic rate after ingestion of a meal.” Basically, what happens is when your body converts the food to energy, your metabolic rate speeds up, and the more energy that you’re using, the more heat that your body is going to produce. This theory is practical because we sweat to cool ourselves down.

Healthlinealso adds to this theory, revealing that our bodies use more energy breaking down different types of food, and 20 to 30 times more on protein than carbohydrates.

The effect of meat sweats is temporary, luckily, although it is unpleasant, and for most people, it is usually nothing to worry about, unless you experience other symptoms, along with the sweating. But, how do you avoid it? Well, not everyone will like the answer because the simple solution is to eat less meat or to try spreading out the meat you eat throughout the day rather than just in one sitting.

Birchbox also reports that you could also prepare for the sweats by wearing clothing that is made from breathable fabrics, like cotton, and stocking up on face wipes and antiperspirant deodorants (although that’s more of a suggestion for making them more bearable than preventing them).